IMPLEMENTING A TRAUMA CARE CHECKLIST FOR ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENT VICTIMS IN A GREEK TERTIARY HOSPITAL papaelestav@gmail.com

 

IMPLEMENTING A TRAUMA CARE CHECKLIST FOR ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENT VICTIMS IN A GREEK TERTIARY HOSPITAL

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Stavroula Katsimente olina.katsimente@gmail.com General Hospital of Athens "Evangelismos" 2nd Surgical Department Athens Greece

Konstantinos Polyzoes k.polyzois@gmail.com General Hospital of Athens "Evangelismos" 3rd Surgical Department Athens Greece

Dimitrios Manganas dmanganas@gmail.com General Hospital of Athens "Evangelismos" 2nd Surgical Department Athens Greece

Christos Kontovounisios c.kontovounisios@imperial.ac.uk General Hospital of Athens "Evangelismos" 2nd Surgical Department Athens Greece

Greece

Oral or Poster

Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) are a major public health concern and represent the leading cause of death among young adults. In-hospital care for RTA victims is recommended to be carried out in trauma centers, which have been shown to improve patient outcomes and reduce mortality. However, due to the lack of certified trauma centers within the Greek National Health System, the surgical teams in tertiary hospitals are responsible for triaging and coordinating the management of trauma patients. To address this gap, we proposed the implementation of the World Health Organization (WHO) Trauma Care Checklist (TCC), which has been associated with improved patient care in various hospitals worldwide.

A retrospective study was conducted on RTA victims admitted to and managed in the Emergency Department (ED) over the past year. A total of 1,884 patients were identified, with a mean age of 37.3 years. The majority were male (71.7%), including 561 motorcycle drivers and seven pedestrians.

All cases were recorded by the surgical team upon arrival at the ED. Following a general surgical evaluation, patients were referred to relevant subspecialties: 1,212 patients (64.3%) to orthopedics, 533 (28.3%) to neurosurgery, and 221 (11.7%) to thoracic surgery. The average waiting time for a CT scan was 2 hours and 27 minutes.

The implementation of the TCC has the potential to enhance trauma care in emergency settings. It could serve as a foundation for the future establishment of trauma centers and improve data collection, ultimately contributing to the development of effective road accident prevention strategies.